The family of mollusks known as shipworms are sometimes referred to as the “termites of the sea” because they bore through and eat submerged wood, including shipwrecks. Actual termites are able to digest wood because bacterial communities in their guts generate enzymes that break down wood fibers. But in a number of shipworm species, the cecum, or intestinal structure where they digest wood, doesn’t have a bacterial community to help out. Researchers have now found the missing microbes—living in specialized cells in shipworms’ gills. “I would say that this finding likely extends to many species,” says Dan Distel of the Northeastern University Marine Science Center. Useful enzymes then migrate to the cecum—scientists don’t know how just yet—where they break wood down into nutritious sugars, sugars that the shipworms then don’t have to share with a community of gut bacteria. This is the first time such an arrangement has been observed in the animal kingdom.

Archaeologists have uncovered a Liao Dynasty (A.D. 907–1125) brick tomb in Datong City in northern China’s Shanxi Province. The tomb had been looted, but only valuable, portable artifacts were taken, which left its remarkable wall paintings intact. The murals cover more than 160 square feet and depict constellations, wooden architecture, travel, and daily life. One panel shows servants standing around an empty bed while a cat plays with a silk ball and a dog, to the right, looks on, perhaps a bit jealously.

Continuing excavations in the House of the Muses at Zeugma in southeastern Turkey have uncovered even more spectacular Roman mosaics, as well as more of the house’s well-preserved architecture. In one of the newly discovered rooms, archaeologists uncovered a mosaic pavement depicting four young women framed by elaborate patterns. Although not identified by any inscriptions, the women may represent heroines from Greek mythology.